Athletic 1, Orient 1 Latics seeking greater home comfort

Photo: Tom Pickles

NEAT FEET . . . Athletic’s on-loan striker Darren Byfield shows his agility at Boundary Park on Saturday, but his acrobatics were in vain

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ATHLETIC’S erratic home form is rapidly becoming their Achilles heel after they were held by a spirited Leyton Orient side.

There is no way John Sheridan’s men can continue to squander points at Boundary Park if they are to maintain their push for promotion from Coca-Cola League One.

The Athletic manager continues to be baffled by the inconsistency of his side in front of their own fans.

They have defeated high-flying Millwall, MK Dons, Scunthorpe and Walsall, but failed to beat the lesser lights in the division.

It was another frustrating day and how Athletic may live to regret not turning draws into wins come the end of the season.

Had they managed to defeat bottom-half-of-the-table teams, such as Yeovil, Brighton and Leyton Orient in the last couple of months, those seven points alone would have lifted Athletic to second place.

Instead of battling for a play-off place, they would be challenging for automatic promotion.

Sadly, at the moment at least, it is a case of what might have been, but should Athletic miss out yet again, it will be because of their inability to see off sides at Boundary Park. That will be hard to stomach.

Athletic were a shadow of the side which, seven days earlier, had performed so well at Peterborough, where they were unlucky not to win after battling back from two goals down to draw 2-2.

For some reason, Sheridan’s men look a far more potent outfit away from Boundary Park.

However, you have to give credit to The O’s, who are one of a handful of teams in League One with a better away record than at home.

The visitors from London extended their unbeaten run on the road in league and cup to seven games, and it was easy to see why as they played with confidence and discipline. They thoroughly deserved their point.

It was great testimony to their defensive qualities in how little work ’keeper Glenn Morris had to do. Athletic, meanwhile, were disappointed how little they created.

Athletic lined up as expected with Stefan Stam keeping his place in the centre of defence in preference to Sean Gregan, who was on the bench.

After a pretty nondescript opening half hour — a polite way of saying it wasn’t very good — the match suddenly burst into life.

Athletic had a lucky let off when O’s striker Sam Parkin, a former Athletic loan player, had a header cleared off the line by Danny Whitaker.

But moments later Athletic were in front. Darren Byfield cut in from the left, only to be impeded by central defender Tamika Mkandawire.

Eagle-eyed referee Roger East noticed the tug on the striker’s shirt and immediately awarded Athletic a penalty.

Andy Liddell stepped forward and made no mistake to score his eighth goal of the season and his fifth spot-kick. The player’s successful attempt maintained his 100-per-cent career record which now stands at 45 out of 45.

Greg Fleming, making his full home league debut in place of the injured Mark Crossley, denied The O’s an equaliser early on in the second half when he made a brilliant reflex save from six yards to deny Parkin. Would this be Athletic’s day?

The answer was no after their luck ran out in the 70th minute. Byfield lost possession, allowing The O’s to break, and substitute Ryan Jarvis was brought down by Fleming.

The fact Jarvis was heading away from goal surely saved the ’keeper from a straight red card rather than the yellow he received.

With regular penalty-taker Adam Boyd substituted — he had been suffering from flu-like symptoms — Jason Demetriou stepped forward only to see his effort kept out by Fleming, who flung himself low to his left for his second spot-kick save in consecutive matches after his one against the Posh.

Sadly Fleming’s team-mates let him down as Jarvis whipped the rebound back across the face of goal for Demetriou to make up for his miss.

It was the ninth time this season The O’s had fought back to level after going behind, an indication as to the character and spirit in their side.

Sheridan immediately threw on young front pair Deane Smalley and Lewis Alessandra and also Chris O’Grady, but Athletic were unable to conjure a match-winning goal.




It’s all in the mind, insists Sheridan

JOHN Sheridan believes he has pinpointed the reason for Athletic’s patchy form at Boundary Park.

The Athletic manager is convinced many of the problems are in the mind.

He explained: “I have come to the conclusion that some of my players aren’t mentally strong enough.

“After we go 1-0 up the players don’t see our strengths, how we are going to win the game and stop the opposition getting back into it.

“I think that is down to the mentality of the players. We have no leaders on the pitch, yet we have players who have been captains at other clubs.

“Some of the players have to grow up quickly, and I am not just talking about the young players, but also some of the older and more established ones as well.

“We won’t get promotion or even into the play-offs by simply turning up, walking out on to the pitch and having a nice game of football.

“You need to be winners, you need to be nasty on the pitch, and even cheat a little bit to get to where you want to go. And that is what good players do.”

Sheridan also questioned whether some of his players have the “bottle” to play at Boundary Park.

He continued: “We keep throwing away chances and, as I have said before, we should be beating Leyton Orient at home.

“I was happy at the way we played in the first half, but I didn’t see the same players in the second. We were playing down the slope and I expected us to up the tempo, but it didn’t happen and I’m speechless at some of our decision-making.”

Sheridan, who still believes his side can achieve his target of seven points out of nine over the holiday period, exonerated Greg Fleming from any blame for the equaliser.

Praising his rookie ’keeper, who has saved penalties in consecutive matches, he said: “The players let him down and I told them that.

“We didn’t react after he saved the penalty and we should have cleared the ball. We switched off again.

“I felt sorry for Greg because he was excellent. He would have been the hero and got all the headlines if we had won the game 1-0. He would have got 10 out of 10 in the papers.”

The O’s manager Martin Ling, who thought a draw was a fair result, made a tactical adjustment which paid off.

He said: “Oldham’s front six are a big threat. They are big in height and try to get behind you, so we had to be dogged and defend five or six yards deeper than we would normally do.

“That was the game plan and it worked fine. The tactic nullified Hughes and Byfield, who are two good players.”

Pictures by TOM PICKLES